Press

ARLINGTON, VA (May 1, 2015) — The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC or Council) announced today the re-appointment of Karen K. Lawson to the FFIEC’s five-member State Liaison Committee (SLC).  Lawson has been active on the SLC since 2013 when she was first confirmed by the Council for a two-year term that began on May 1, 2013.  Lawson’s second two-year term begins today and runs through April 30, 2017.

Lawson is Director, Office of Banking for the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS).  The office is responsible for the supervision, regulation, and examination of state-chartered banks, savings banks, trust banks, and business and industrial development companies.  In addition to these entities, DIFS regulates credit unions, insurance companies and agents, and various consumer finance licensees and registrants.

Lawson joined the State of Michigan as a bank examiner more than 20 years ago, and was appointed to lead the banking program in 2011.  She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS), and Lawson also serves as the SLC representative to the FFIEC Task Force on Supervision, a position she has held since 2014.

The FFIEC was created by the Federal Financial Institutions Regulatory and Interest Rate Control Act of 1978 to prescribe uniform principles, standards, and report forms for the federal examination of financial institutions, and to make recommendations to promote uniformity in the supervision of financial institutions.  It also conducts schools for examiners employed by the five federal member agencies represented on the Council and makes those schools available to employees of state agencies that supervise financial institutions.

The FFIEC currently consists of the following six voting members:  a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), appointed by the Chairman of the Board; Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; the Comptroller of the Currency, Office of Comptroller of the Currency; Chairman of the National Credit Union Administration; and the Chairman of the SLC.

The SLC consists of five representatives of state banking agencies that supervise financial institutions and members are designated from the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, the American Council of State Savings Supervisors, the National Association of State Credit Union Supervisors, and the Council.  An SLC member may have his or her two-year term extended by the appointing organization for an additional, consecutive two-year term.

The FFIEC was established in March 1979 to prescribe uniform principles, standards, and report forms and to promote uniformity in the supervision of financial institutions. The Council has six voting members: a Governor of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System designated by the Chairman of the Board, the Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Chairman of the Board of the National Credit Union Administration, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Chairman of the State Liaison Committee. The Council’s activities are supported by interagency task forces and by an advisory State Liaison Committee, comprised of five representatives of state agencies that supervise financial institutions.